230. A walk 'round SOMA

Almost winter 2017

I felt like a nice long walk today -- we have a long gap in the rains that finally arrived -- so I did my little architectural tour of SOMA. Here are some highlights.

A view of Salesforce Tower from Market, looking like an actual building,

Looking south down 1st street with Salesforce Tower on the left and the trees in the park now visible atop the Transbay Transit Center,

The other side of Salesforce (now on the right) with the start of the tram system that will lift people from this plaza up to the top of the TTC at the left,

Official details of the TTC,

The trains in the basement are a joke as there's no funding for either system, and the High Speed Rail scheme probably won't survive the end of this final Brown gubernatorial administration.

Yet another tower going up on the north side of the Temporary Transbay Terminal,

The support tower for the bus roadway that links TTC with I-80 and the Bay Bridge,

The completed (east) end of the new Moscone South extension. The phase that's now underway might be a little more attractive,

I do like that they left the seismic structure visible to some extent,

Phase 2 just getting started. Here you can see most of the seismic structure that I'm sure will be hidden when the building is completed. If I read this correctly, this will be a large atrium space tying the wings together and leading down to the main, subterranean hall,

This wall will probably be opened up when the new structure is finished,